Wednesday, August 20, 2014

DIY Crates & Shelves

In the middle of my outrageously large IKEA Trofast building project, I realized how much scrap wood we had in the garage taking up space. It was mostly pre-primed lumber. I set out to find something useful to make out of it.

The first project, wooden storage crates, was inspired by I Should Be Mopping The Floor. I can always use more containers to hold stuff and I liked the look of the white wooden crates she made.

I was still figuring out our circular saw so the crates looked really rough to begin with:

But once they were sanded and smoothed a bit, then painted, they looked nice with a little bit of a rustic vibe going:

I've got them under the buffet in my dining room for now.

The handles were purchased from Lowe's for $1.38 each. They were thin, but strong. I would have preferred a beefier, more rounded handle (much like the ones in the original tutorial from Hobby Lobby), but these were the only ones that had a rustic look to them. They're strong enough for sure, but they are thin so if the crates are heavy, the thinner handles would make the crates less comfortable to carry.

I also made two shelves inspired by Turnstyle Vogue. They added additional storage in The Girl's room.

To get the required depth needed for the brackets, the shelves wound up with some additional space between the slats. That makes the shelves look more like fencing but they work. The brackets came from Lowes and were $4.97 each.